Daniels, et al. v. the City of New York

Daniels, et al. v. the City of New York was a class action lawsuit filed in 1999 against the New York Police Department (NYPD) and the City of New York, charging them with racial profiling and unlawful stop and frisk, and requesting the disbanding of the NYPD Street Crimes Unit.

In February 1999, the Amadou Diallo shooting brought increased attention to the issue of police brutality. NYPD records showed that in 1997 and 1998, 35,000 out of 45,000 stop-and-frisks did not result in an arrest. The statistics showed that 16 African Americans were stopped for every arrest made. These statistics represented a small proportion of NYPD officers, members of the NYPD Street Crimes Unit, which brought calls for the Unit to be disbanded.

The Daniels et al. v. The City of New York et al. was brought to the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) by Richie Perez of the National Congress of Puerto Rican Rights during the aftermath of the Diallo shooting.

The defendants initially argued to dismiss the case, citing a 1983 Supreme Court decision, City of Los Angeles v. Lyons. The court denied the dismissal.

The court also denied the plaintiffs' Equal Protection clause claim, as they set a racial classification, stating that the Street Crimes Unit had a "policy, practice and/or custom of stopping and frisking [individuals] based solely on [their] race and/or national origin."

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